New striker Chris Wood has given Leicester City an extra dimension to their attacking play, says midfielder Andy King.

Twenty-one-year-old Wood scored his third goal in just two appearances since his arrival from West Brom a week ago as City beat Burton Albion 2-0 to progress into the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The New Zealander opened the scoring after just three minutes and was a constant menace to the Brewers defence.

King said Wood had made a big impact with his team-mates, and added: "Chris has been brilliant.

"He has scored a lot of goals this season and if he can keep that going for us, it will give us a big boost.

"He adds a different dimension to our play with his size and his goals. We should look to build on that.

"You can see he has an eye for goal and has scored early in his first two games. You look at his tally for the season and he is up there with the top scorers in the league.

"He links the play well but also works hard, which everyone at this club does.

"I think that gives us all a lift when you have strikers pressing defenders. It gives the team the emphasis to go on and do that as well."

King said Wood's goal was important as it gave City the momentum to see off the Brewers and atone for their shock Capital One Cup defeat against the same opposition in August.

"Everyone remembers that game as one of our worst performances of the season but, most of all, it was about getting through to the next round and I think we did that professionally," said King.

"We showed really good quality and deserved to go through.

"August was one of those freak results. They had four shots on goal and scored all of them and their keeper had a great day.

"Scoring early (on Saturday) gave us the platform to go on and dominate the game."

One of Leicester's most prominent shisha cafes is facing prosecution under the smoking ban laws.

Leicester City Council is taking Al Feena, in St George's Way to court later this month.

Officials said the popular venue, which has been running for two years, falls foul of the legislation which said it had to be at least 50 per cent open to the fresh air.

The council said the premises, on the ground floor of the St George's tower complex, next to the inner ring road, is too enclosed to comply with the legislation.

Health and safety team manager Gov Mandora said: "It is effectively an underground car park with a shuttered front. It needs to be at least 50 per cent open."

Mr Mandora said he expected the case to go to Leicester Magistrates' Court on January 15.

He said the council had been in discussions with the business about changes it could make to fit in with the smoking laws but nothing had happened.

He said: "The prosecution is the very last resort.

"Our aim is not to shut the place down, but to get them to comply with the law, which is now more than five years old.

"The ultimate aim is to protect the health of the customers, as well as the staff who work in there and could be exposed to shish smoke for many hours at a time.

"We have had a discussion with them and suggested they could have smoking on the court yard at the front of the premises. Unfortunately, they have chosen not to listen so we have had to take them to task."

Mr Mandora said the council had commissioned an independent architect to demonstrate the premises did not comply with the 50 per cent rule.

He said the venue could face a £2,500 fine if found guilty at court.

Mr Mandora said the council had succeeded in every prosecution it had made of shisha establishments.

He said: "We are getting up towards double figures in cases and we haven't lost one.

"We also have another half dozen or so investigations going on which are at various stages."

A spokesman for Al Feena said: "We shall be contesting the court hearing."

He said: "We have invested £150,000 in the business and we would not have done that without securing all the relevant permissions."

A good run in the FA Cup will not harm Leicester City's promotion push, assistant manager Craig Shakespeare believes.

City were handed a fourth-round trip to Huddersfield later this month after a 2-0 victory over Burton Albion at the King Power Stadium.

Shakespeare insisted a cup run would not act as a distraction and said last season's efforts in reaching the quarter-finals helped their league campaign.

"Make no bones about it, the league is our priority," he said. "I know that modern players can play two games a week. But we saw the benefit of a good cup run last year and the FA Cup is special and players realise that.

"There's nothing wrong with a good cup run. We haven't thought about getting through the rounds at this stage, we'll just see what happens."

City were determined not to suffer the same fate as they did in the Capital One Cup when the Brewers pulled off a shock victory at the King Power Stadium in August.

This time City never looked in any danger after Chris Wood had fired them in front after just three minutes, although Shakespeare said it had not been an easy passage.

"I wouldn't say there weren't any scares because 2-0 is always a dodgy scoreline," he said.

"The first goal was important for us, getting it early to settle us down. I think then you can say the boys were very professional and went about their jobs in the right way.

"We kept good habits and restricted Burton to very few opportunities. We knew what they were capable of because they knocked us out of the Capital One Cup.

"We knew it was going to be a tricky tie, but we're grateful and pleased to be through to the next round, and keeping a clean sheet was good as well.

"We only made three changes because we wanted to keep our momentum going. But we also knew there were some lads that needed and wanted a bit of game time, which we were able to give them."

Police spent £13 million last year looking for missing people – many of them children in local authority care.

Just 73 under-17s – most of them from city or county council children's homes – triggered more than 1,700 alerts to Leicestershire Police last year.

That is nearly a third of the 5,500 missing people inquiries handled by the force last year. Now, a senior officer has called on councils to tighten up procedures at their children's homes.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Sharp, head of the force's safeguarding team, said: "We have young people in care who have been reported as missing from home 60, 70 or even 80 times.

"We've analysed the figures and we estimate that 73 children are responsible for 1,796 reports. Not every one of those children is in care, but the vast majority are.

"If every one of those cases involved a genuine safeguarding issue then I'd say 'fine, we are here to prevent people coming to harm'.

"But where I get concerned is the number of cases where people repeatedly go missing."

Leicestershire County Council has said it would work with Leicestershire Police to reduce the number of children in its care who go missing, Det Chief Insp Sharp said.

He now hopes Leicester City Council will follow suit.

Other major sources of missing alerts are mental health units and "vulnerable" patients who walk out of hospital.

Mr Sharp said he had held talks with health officials and they had agreed to try to reduce the number of alerts from their hospitals or residential units.

About 15 people are reported missing from mental health units in the city and county each month.

Det Chief Insp Sharp said a typical, short-term missing case cost the force about £2,400. However, he said: "When you are talking about high-risk missing people you could easily quadruple that average figure, especially when you bring in a search team or the helicopter."

The force, which is facing substantial cuts to its £175 million annual budget, calculated the £13 million bill using research published last August by academics at Portsmouth University. The £13 million is basically officers' time which could be spent on traditional crime fighting or investigation.

A child missing from care is automatically categorised as a medium or high risk, whereas some missing people are deemed to be at little risk of coming to harm.

Police and crime commissioner Sir Clive Loader – elected in November to set the force's budget and to oversee the cuts programme – also recently highlighted missing people inquiries as a major cost to the force which needed to be reduced.

City assistant mayor Vi Dempster, responsible for children, young people and schools, said: "A child in the care of a local authority is already vulnerable.

"When they go missing they are more vulnerable.

"We have very good protocols in place, so as soon as a child who has been reported missing is found they are interviewed because we want to understand why they did it and what can be done to prevent it happening again. We do have a close relationship with the police and, clearly, there is more work to be done."

A city police officer, who asked not to be named, said: "Of course, we're going to treat a case of a child missing from care as an absolute priority.

"In some cases we're aware of concerns about those young people being at risk of getting drawn into prostitution, very unhealthy relationships with adults or crime generally.

"What is annoying is finding a child who's been missing scores of times from a home has, again, been found at his mate's house because he wanted to borrow some DVDs or has just gone for a wander into town.

"In my experience, the bulk of the children missing from home cases probably shouldn't have been reported to the police in the first place."

Last season, the FA Cup proved to be a welcome tonic in what was otherwise a frustrating campaign.

Leicester City's march to the quarter-finals was the highlight of the season, with the victory at Premier League side Norwich the stand-out performance of the whole campaign, while the trip to face Chelsea was arguably the most memorable day out.

However, their success in the cup did not really kick-start a promotion campaign, although their best league victory, away at Southampton, was sandwiched between the fantastic third-round drubbing of Nottingham Forest and the fourth-round win against Swindon.

It looked like a promotion charge was on the cards after that memorable night at St Mary's.

But it was not to be. Did the FA Cup hinder that expected charge, then?

Probably not. City did not have the consistency for a league campaign but were certainly good enough for one-off cup clashes.

There seems to be no evidence that supports the theory that a good cup run detracts from a promotion push.

That seems to be even more unlikely at a club like City, where the focus is absolutely on promotion.

It is not quite tunnel vision. The FA Cup certainly has a strong value to City, and not just as a competition in its own right. It can provide benefits for the league.

While Cardiff made 11 changes to their side and paid the price at Macclesfield, City showed Burton more respect by making just three changes from the side that hammered Huddersfield last Tuesday.

After the Capital One Cup defeat at the hands of the Brewers in August, there was even more pressure on City to ensure safe passage to the fourth round as they had a point to prove after that debacle.

And prove it they did. As soon as Chris Wood, who looks like a fantastic acquisition by City, put them ahead after three minutes, they looked more or less comfortable throughout.

When Ritchie De Laet scored his second in consecutive games soon after, the tie was virtually secure.

Only Robbie Weir's curling effort, which Kasper Schmeichel pushed away at full stretch, threatened to derail City.

Reaching round four was the ultimate aim, as was exorcising the demons of the Capital One Cup, but City were also able to give Wood another run-out to familiarise himself with his new surroundings, which is vital as he will be spearheading the promotion challenge.

There was another 90 minutes for teenager Michael Keane, who has looked incredibly impressive for a 19-year-old defender.

Both players benefited from the run-out and City were able to chalk up a third consecutive win, giving them that most crucial of factors in any league campaign, momentum. They just have to keep it going.

Two new sites for gypsies are to be set up in Leicester, City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby announced today.
They will be created at Redhill Way and Greengate Lane near the north east boundary with Charnwood borough.
A third site, at Beaumont Way, has been ruled out as unsuitable.
The city council will also explore the possibility of creating two additional sites at Hoods Close, near Beaumont Leys, and Ratby Lane.
Sir Peter said: "This has been a very hard decision which was never going to be popular but the council has for years put off tackling the issue of unauthorised encampments across the city, which have numbered more than 115 between January 2009 and September 2012.

"We've looked long and hard at the issues people have raised - for example we've agreed to limit the size of the Greengate Lane site to minimise the impact on nearby residents. We're also not planning to allow these sites to expand beyond the planned number of pitches.

"It is no longer enough for us to do nothing, and the extra pitches offered by these sites should be a step towards us getting on top of the problem of unauthorised encampments."
But the chairman of the LE4 Action Group Roy Rollings said: "This is a bad day for democracy. It ignores the thousands of people who voiced reasonable objections to the sites.
"Both are developing greenfield sites and pose road safety risks. We shall oppose them when they come forward for planning approval."

The daughter of the deputy leader of Leicestershire County Council has launched a petition in support of her father who faces suspension from his party.

Members of County Hall's Tory Group will meet tomorrow to discuss what, if any, action to take against Councillor David Sprason.

He voluntarily stepped down from his posts as deputy leader of the authority and cabinet member for adults and communities in November after a letter was leaked to the Mercury about a pornographic DVD which was discovered in his council laptop by a council officer in 2007.

Tory whips launched an investigation after an article appeared in the Mercury, in which Coun Sprason said he was not embarrassed by the matter. They say he broke two party rules after giving an interview to the Mercury, which resulted in a story that led to widespread coverage in the national media.

They are recommending he be suspended from the party for two months and stripped of senior roles.

However, Coun Sprason's daughter, Victoria, has launched an online petition calling for him to be reinstated.

She was unavailable for comment yesterday but her petition had been signed by more than 100 people.

Some left comments saying Coun Sprason had been betrayed, had done nothing wrong, and praised him for his work on behalf of people in his Markfield, Thornton and Desford division. Others said he had been successful in his cabinet role. Coun Sprason declined to comment yesterday.

The leaked letter from the former county solicitor to Coun Sprason said no illegal activity had occurred, but told him not to view any such material on a council device again.

Council leader Nick Rushton said he would recommend his members support the whips' recommendation in full.

He dismissed the petition.

He said: "I have seen it. There was also an attempt to get one registered on the county council website, but it was rejected. This is a party matter not a county council matter.

"The petition will not form part of the evidence (presented to party members tomorrow)."

The whips' investigation concluded Coun Sprason had let his private life cause embarrassment to the party and he had failed to uphold "the highest standards of leadership and integrity". They are recommending the suspension be reduced to a month if Coun Sprason issues a written public apology.

A senior Tory councillor, who did not wish to be named, said: "There will be a debate on the suspension because if he apologises there are some who think he should not be suspended."

www.thepetitionsite.com/ 433/947/048/give-david-sprason-his-job-back-now/

A tenant converted part of his home into a cannabis factory to feed his personal habit, a court heard.

When police raided the four-bedroom detached rental property in Coverside Road, Great Glen, they found Joshua Brennan was growing 26 illegal plants.

John Hallissey, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court: "Two bedrooms had been converted into a cannabis factory.

"There was a lighting system, heat-lamps, watering equipment and ventilation pipes installed in the ceiling.

"The defendant told the police he'd been smoking cannabis for a long time and was growing it for himself.

"In interview, he accepted he'd extracted the electricity."

Brennan (26) admitted producing cannabis, on the basis it was for his own use and not a commercial venture, on July 4 last year.

He gave evidence about the circumstances surrounding the offence.

Brennan told the court he moved into the rented property – following the break-up of a relationship – just three weeks before he was arrested.

He spent £1,000 on the equipment, installing it himself after researching the subject on the internet and using his experience of working with air conditioning units and as a former shop-fitter.

Brennan, of Saville Road, Blaby, said he was a heavy cannabis user.

He said: "I'd hoped to grow enough so I didn't have to keep giving my money over to drug dealers. It was 100 per cent for myself.

"I wasn't going to sell it, I'm not that kind of person and don't need to do something like that."

Recorder Robert Egbuna said photographs showed the plants were in a withered and poor condition.

He accepted Brennan's account and sentenced him to a 12-month community order, with 160 hours of unpaid work.

Recorder Egbuna said: "It doesn't appear professional and wasn't an impressive growing operation.

"It wasn't motivated by financial reasons, but it's still serous.

"I'm giving you a chance."

Vasanti Vaitha, mitigating, said: "There were no others involved."

Crime in Leicestershire is at a 22-year low, chief constable Simon Cole has reported.

The force cut crime in 2012 despite its shrinking budget and its commitment to events such as the Olympics and the Queen's visit to Leicester, Mr Cole said yesterday.

In total last year, the force recorded 61,515 offences, 6,849 fewer than in 2011.

Mr Cole, of Leicestershire Police, said: "We are seeing reductions in crime at a time when we are experiencing considerably reduced budgets. However, we are not complacent.

"There is still a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and months to tackle crime and to seek new efficiencies in the way we do business."

Police and crime commissioner Sir Clive Loader, said: "Naturally I am pleased to see this reduction in the number of crimes committed.

"But, while there are still victims of crime, more work remains to be done."

Andy King says the FA Cup is hugely important to everyone at Leicester City.

While promotion rivals Cardiff City made 11 changes and paid the price at Macclesfield Town, City took no chances against Burton Albion on Saturday.

Manager Nigel Pearson made just three changes to the side that beat Huddersfield Town in the Championship four days before.

The competition may be seen as a distraction by some promotion-chasing outfits, but King said the FA Cup is still a key part of the season.

"The Cup is massively important," said midfielder King. "You only have to look at last season and the run we went on, and who we played against. That is what everyone wants to do.

"We got to the quarter-finals last year and lost to Chelsea. If you miss one of the big teams then there's a chance you can win again and get into the semi-final at Wembley. Then anything is possible.

"It is also about keeping the winning mentality going. We have won three games on the spin now and that gives us confidence going into the league."

Despite Cardiff's exit, and the suggestion they were happy to be out of the Cup so they could concentrate on the league, King refuses to believe any professional would be happy to lose any game of football.

In fact, King said the Cup win over Burton would add to the rising confidence within the City camp.

"I don't know any players who don't want to win," he said.

"You should go into every game wanting to win. That is the mentality you need around any club.

"That is the mentality we have at this club and, if you aren't bothered if you lose, that sets you back to square one for the league.

"We needed to keep the run going and we have done that with a good performance against Burton."

Surprised police officers stumbled upon a lost pig wandering through the city streets while out on patrol.

Percy was trotting down a road in Leicester, on New Year's Day.

Staff at the Woodside RSPCA centre, in Braunstone, who are now caring for the eight-month-old micro-type pig, think he was dumped by his owner when he got too big.

Centre assistant manager Jade Burton said: "It is a very strange thing – we are used to stray cats and dogs, but pigs are a different thing altogether.

"I've been here 12 years and I think this is the third pig I have heard of being found here.

"When he came in he was underweight and had poorly skin that was red and itchy."

Staff think he was probably kept as a pet in someone's house or garden and is not a farm animal, as they have to be registered and tagged.

"He was very friendly and actually much preferred human food to the food pigs should eat, so I think he was probably someone's pet," said Jade.

"With strays, it is difficult to say, but maybe he was too big for someone who was keeping him as a pet and they just left him out – bless him."

Percy, who is being weaned off his favourite food of bread – which is not good for pigs – has recovered from his skin condition.

He was only slightly underweight when he arrived at the centre, so staff think he had not spent long without a home.

He is now back to full health, and in need of new loving owners, who have the time and knowledge to keep him happy and healthy.

Ideally, he would be suited to owners who have experience of looking after pigs and have plenty of room for him outdoors.

"Ideally, we're looking for farm-type people who have experience, maybe a city farm set up," added Jade.

She warned people about the responsibility of having a pig as a pet. There is no guarantee even a micro-pig will stay small.

"They really are a specialist animal, who need specialised care, so anyone who is thinking about getting one as a pet should get some proper advice first from professionals," she said.

If you can offer Percy a home, call 0116 233 6677.

If you know anything about how he ended up in the street, call 0300 1234 999.

A woman has been jailed for marrying a number of men to enable them to enter the UK illegally.

Ayesha Mullan (26) entered into sham marriages with Indian nationals whom she barely knew even though she was already married.

She was jailed at Downpatrick Crown Court, in Northern Ireland, for 15 months yesterday after a ceremony at a local register office was raided by the UK Border Agency.

Mullan, of Ellesmere Court, Braunstone Park, Leicester, admitted conspiring to assist unlawful immigration as well as bigamy. Andrea Anderson, of the UK Border Agency said: "Northern Ireland is not a soft touch for this type of crime and we will prosecute those who facilitate illegal immigration and those who have no right to be in the UK."

The would-be groom was jailed for 15 months last year and has since been deported to India.

A little more than £185,000 was spent hosting last year's royal visit to mark the start of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration, it has emerged.

The costs to Leicester City Council and De Montfort University of welcoming the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Cambridge to the city in March were revealed in Freedom of Information requests, submitted by campaign group Republic.

The Queen chose the city to start her nationwide tour celebrating 60 years on the throne and sent a message of thanks to the people of Leicestershire, who turned out in their thousands to see her.

Republic has criticised the £85,851 expense of the visit met by the council and the £100,000 spent by the publicly-funded university.

However, city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and the university both said it was money well spent because of the high profile of the visit.

Sir Peter, who on the day received the royal party in front of thousands of people in a crowded Humberstone Gate, said: "It's great value for money. So many thousands of people from Leicestershire came to the city to enjoy the visit and they had the most wonderful day.

"It was a great honour for the city to be chosen by the Queen to start her jubilee tour. The cost was a small price to pay for having the honour of being the first place on the jubilee tour."

A city council spokesman said: "The scale of this visit, and the public interest it had generated, meant the crowd safety and security requirements were considerable.

"We took on-going advice from the police and the royal household.

"In the end, costs associated with road closures, barriers, security, crowd safety and associated staffing accounted for over £65,000 of the total costs to the council.

"It was a special moment in the city's history and a unique opportunity for us to show our strengths as a proud, diverse and modern city."

De Montfort University, which hosted the royal party for part of the visit, was yesterday unable to say what it had spent the £100,000 on.

In its Freedom of Information response it revealed the £10,000 had come from external sponsorship.

A university spokesman said: "We believe the money spent on hosting the visit was money well spent on a historic day for our students, staff and for the city.

"We also believe the visit will generate many more thousands of pounds in income for the university from students coming here as a result of the great profile we received."

He said that in the days immediately following the visit, media coverage reached more than 779 million people and had continued to bring attention to the university since.

"That included featuring in round-up of the year features broadcast on national television."

Republic, which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy and its replacement with an elected head of state, said the money spent on the royal visit should have been used to protect council and university jobs or improve facilities.

Spokesman Graham Smith said: "There is no value for Leicester in these royal visits yet the council and university have wasted tens of thousands of pounds that could be spent on jobs and student facilities.

"Both the council and university are facing cuts yet they still went ahead and spent thousands of pounds on a single day.

"Jobs could have been saved with this money. Instead, it was wasted on celebrating our undemocratic head of state.

"Students facing possible cuts to resources will wonder why the university is spending £90,000 on a royal visit. This is part of a national pattern – when the royals come to town local taxpayers can usually expect to be left with a hefty bill."

Leicester Cathedral also hosted the royal party and provided lunch for them. The Diocese of Leicester, which is not required to answer Freedom of Information requests, said it was unable to say what it had spent on the royal visit.

It said much of its preparations were done by volunteers.

Leicestershire Police was asked how much it spent on managing the royal visit, but yesterday was unable to provide a figure.

A woman had to be cut free from a car after it crashed into the side of a home.

The incident happened in Great Stretton, near Stoughton, on Monday night.

The crash was the latest in a series of serious accidents in recent months along a mile-long stretch of Gartree Road between Shady Lane, in Oadby, up to Great Stretton.

Two county councillors are calling for a fresh look at speed limits on the road, which has seen cars running into buildings and ditches, to determine whether they are appropriate.

In Monday's collision, a Renault Clio left Gartree Road just before 9.30pm and crashed into a barn conversion, causing plaster to fall off the walls.

Firefighters took about an hour to free the female driver, who was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary by ambulance. Her age and information about her condition have not been released.

Billie Voss, 54, who lives next door to the home hit by the car, said: "I heard a loud bang. My husband went out to check everybody was okay.

"The family who live there were inside watching TV and the impact brought plaster off the walls, but luckily the walls are about 18 inches thick.

"It's a dangerous bend."

Keith Vaughan, who lives close to the scene of the crash, said: "We have had so many accidents around here. There have been 30 accidents 200 yards either side of our home in the 20 years we've lived here."

He said there had been so many crashes at a T-junction where the road from Houghton joins Gartree Road, officials had "given up replacing the road sign opposite the junction".

"We've had a car overturn in the ditch opposite our house and two years ago one demolished our fence," he said.

"When we pull out of our drive in the morning we're in fear of our lives."

Less than a mile away from the site of the latest crash, opposite the junction with Shady Lane, in Oadby, is a black Vauxhall Astra believed to have crashed through metal railings into a ditch between Christmas and New Year.

Stout metal railings, which it is believed are there to protect utility equipment, have still not been repaired after a previous crash.

In November, a motorist was taken to hospital after a car and a van collided at the same spot.

Councillor Simon Galton, whose county council Launde ward includes the Shady Lane junction with Gartree Road, said: "I've seen two or three accidents at that spot recently. For people turning in and out of Shady Lane, and further along at the turning for Stoughton, it can be quite daunting with the speed traffic goes at.

"We need to do a speed survey of the whole of Gartree Road."

Councillor Kevin Feltham, whose Gartree ward includes Great Stretton, said there was a double bend and a dip in the road at the scene of the latest accident.

He said: "In Great Stretton, I would like to see the speed limit reduced to 50mph, or even 40mph."

A county council spokesman said: "We are aware of concerns about this site, especially the junction with Shady Lane, and we will be investigating it in due course."

An engineering firm which makes car parts is to close with the loss of about 80 jobs.

Schlegel Automotive Europe, in Bardon, near Coalville, will stop production on January 20 after administrators failed to find a buyer for the stricken business.

The company went into administration in October, after losing a large contract with car giant Nissan.

As a result, the firm immediately cut its employee numbers from 336 to 115 and in November reduced the workforce by another 33 jobs.

Yesterday, Situl Raithatha, from Leicester administrators Springfields, said despite weeks of trying to sell the business, which manufactures car sealing systems, it had proved impossible to find a buyer.

The majority of the firm's 82-strong workforce will be made redundant when production stops and a team of skeleton staff will be kept on to help with the winding down of the business and disposal of the firm's assets.

Mr Raithatha said: "Together with the Schlegel management, we have continued to work tirelessly to find a buyer but unfortunately this has not been possible.

"I would again like to thank management, employees, contractors, customers and suppliers for their support during the period since administration."

Schlegel, established in 1958, was bought by RUIA Group in 2008.

In November, the wife of a long-term employee who had lost his job told the Mercury: "For people such as my husband, finding out they are going to lose their jobs could not have come at a worse time. "Some of them are in their 50s and are going to find it hard."

An event has been organised to offer advice to Schlegel's remaining workforce and former employees. Organised with North West Leicestershire District Council and the Unite union, it will be held at the council offices in Whitwick Road, Coalville, on January 17.

For further information, contact Schlegel's HR manager Steven Finnie via e-mail at:

steven.finnie@ schlegel-auto.com